Written by David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday proposed a new process to streamline reviews of exemptions submitted by automakers seeking to deploy self-driving vehicles without the need for human controls such as steering wheels or brake pedals.
NHTSA has the authority to approve petitions to allow up to 2,500 vehicles per manufacturer to operate on U.S. roads without the need for human controls, but the agency has spent years reviewing many petitions without taking any action. Efforts in Congress to make it easier to deploy vehicles on American roads without human controls have been stymied for years.
Automakers have expressed frustration with the agency's slow reviews of self-driving vehicles. By law, fully autonomous vehicles do not need approval from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) if they require human controls.
The industry is facing scrutiny after a pedestrian was seriously injured in October 2023 by a General Motors (NYSE:) Cruze. NHTSA has opened a number of investigations into self-driving vehicles including Cruise, Alphabet (NASDAQ:) Waymo, and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:) Zoox.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents General Motors, Toyota (NYSE:), Volkswagen (ETR:), Hyundai (OTC:) and other major automakers said the proposal “would provide a path to significantly expand the number of commercial autonomous vehicles operating in the United States. We urgently need a regulatory framework for autonomous vehicles.” Self-driving in the United States, so that we do not cede leadership to China and other countries.”
Reuters and other media outlets report that President-elect Donald Trump wants to lower barriers to deploying self-driving vehicles. Tesla (NASDAQ:) CEO Elon Musk, a close adviser to Trump, said in October that the automaker would roll out driverless ride-hailing services in 2025.
The NHTSA in October opened an investigation into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with Full Self-Driving (FSD) after four reported crashes, including a fatal crash in 2023.
In 2018, GM petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to deploy up to 2,500 vehicles without steering wheels or brake pads on U.S. roads. In 2020, GM withdrew the petition.
In 2022, GM again requested NHTSA approval to deploy vehicles without human controls. GM withdrew the petition in October, and this month announced it would exit the robotaxi business.
Ford (NYSE:) last year withdrew its July 2021 self-driving petition to the NHTSA, citing its decision to shut down its Argo AI self-driving project in 2022.
